{"id":736,"date":"2025-06-21T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/?p=736"},"modified":"2025-06-27T19:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T19:16:07","slug":"5-reasons-to-be-grateful-for-air-conditioning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/21\/5-reasons-to-be-grateful-for-air-conditioning\/","title":{"rendered":"5 reasons to be grateful for air conditioning"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tA You\u2019re Hot, Stay Cool sign with an AC unit and fan posted to a street light during a heat wave on 86th Street in Manhattan, New York. | Lindsey Nicholson\/UCG\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lee Kuan Yew, the iron-willed founder of modern Singapore, was once asked what the most important invention of the 20th century was. He didn\u2019t say penicillin<\/a>, which has saved over 500 million lives, or the nuclear bomb, which has shaped geopolitics like nothing before. He didn\u2019t even say TV! <\/p>\n

Instead, Lee had a simple two-word answer<\/a>: \u201cAir conditioning.\u201d Without air conditioning, Singapore, where temperatures regularly reach into the 90s with tropical humidity levels, would never have developed<\/a> from a tiny city-state with a per-capita GDP that was a third of Western Europe\u2019s in 1960 to one of the most prosperous countries in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Air conditioning is as essential to the modern world as the internet itself. But like the internet, A\/C gets a bad rap. Cooling already eats up<\/a> 10 percent of global electricity, and demand from air conditioners is expected to triple by 2050<\/a> without tougher energy efficiency standards. Many units still use refrigerant gases that produce a planetary warming effect<\/a> that is thousands of times that of a similar amount of CO2. <\/p>\n

Air conditioning is also a physical manifestation of the energy gap<\/a> between the rich who can afford it, and the poor who must sweat. It has enabled the development of energy-intensive cities<\/a> in places where humans just shouldn\u2019t live, like Phoenix. Fundamentally, A\/C is seen by some as an unnecessary luxury, a prime example of a \u201charmful habit of consumption,\u201d as Pope Francis once put it.   <\/p>\n

I get the point. It seems morally wrong for so many of us to use a device that contributes about 3 percent<\/a> of global greenhouse gas emissions \u2014 only so we can escape the effects of that warming.<\/p>\n

But \u201cseems\u201d is not the same as \u201cis.\u201d Air conditioning has become far more than a luxury. So on this, the second day of summer, when the East Coast is about to be enveloped by a truly suffocating wave of heat and humidity, I offer five reasons why we should be grateful for air conditioning.<\/p>\n

It saves lives<\/h3>\n

Heat isn\u2019t just uncomfortable. It\u2019s dangerous, killing more Americans<\/a> in a typical year than any other form of extreme weather. Access to air conditioning can mean the difference between life and death. Seven hundred and thirty-nine people died in the great Chicago heat wave of 1995, but having a working air conditioner reduced the risk of death by 80 percent<\/a>. Another study looked at cities in multiple countries<\/a> between 1972 and 2009 and found that more air conditioning helped reduce excess heat deaths. <\/p>\n

As a 2021 review in the Lancet explained it<\/a>, air conditioning \u201cis set to become the most prevalent strategy worldwide for coping with hot weather and heat extremes.\u201d And while only about 8 percent<\/a> of the 2.8 billion people living in the world\u2019s hottest regions have A\/C at home, that\u2019s an argument for closing the A\/C gap \u2014 not an argument against the very real value of air conditioning.<\/p>\n

It keeps us working<\/h3>\n

If you struggle to concentrate when the heat and humidity is high, you\u2019re not alone. One study looked at office work<\/a> and found that productivity begins to decline around 73 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, while at 86\u00b0F, performance falls by almost 9 percent. Another study<\/a> found that every 1 degree increase in average classroom temperature over a school year corresponded to a roughly 1 percent loss in students\u2019 expected learning \u2014 but installing air conditioning eliminates about three-quarters of that effect. <\/p>\n

As temperatures continue to increase, the importance of air conditioning in schools and businesses will only grow. A 2016 working paper<\/a> finds that widespread adoption of air conditioning \u2014 especially by the most productive plants \u2014 substantially offsets the heat-induced drop in US manufacturing output, making cooling a critical adaptation tool.<\/p>\n

It helps us sleep<\/h3>\n

The more we learn about sleep, the more important it appears to be<\/a> \u2014 and keeping cool is a key part of a decent night\u2019s sleep. <\/p>\n

Humans fall asleep<\/a> fastest around 64\u201368\u00b0F, while temperatures above 75\u00b0F cause vital deep sleep and REM sleep to crater. A 2024 review<\/a> of more than 50 lab and field studies found that bedroom cooling increased total sleep time 15 to 20 minutes and cut the total amount of time people spent awake after falling asleep by a third. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s given us everything from the movies to microchips<\/h3>\n

Do you like going to the movie theater to catch a summer blockbuster? Well, you can thank air conditioning \u2014 before its invention, movie attendance always dropped during the hot summer months. It\u2019s no coincidence that the first public air conditioner was installed in a cinema<\/a>, New York\u2019s Rivoli Theater, in 1925. <\/p>\n

But maybe you prefer to take in your movies in the comfort of your own home? Well, producing the microchips that go into your streaming TV or smartphone requires total precision<\/a> in temperature control and humidity. In short: no A\/C, no microchips.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It lets millions live and travel where they want<\/h3>\n

Look, my negative feelings about living in red-hot metros like Phoenix are a matter of public record<\/a>. But I am clearly in the minority: Americans love to live in hot places<\/a>. Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, added<\/a> 1.2 million people between 2013 and 2023, more than any other county \u2014 and 96 percent of the new housing built to absorb those new residents comes with A\/C.<\/p>\n

What US cities like Phoenix or Houston or Atlanta have in common with Singapore and Hong Kong is that none of them would exist as anything like they are today without the widespread use of air conditioning<\/a>. Before A\/C, the American South was mired in poverty, far behind the rest of the country. After A\/C, the South more than caught up, and the otherwise uninhabitable Southwest became a magnet for people. If you think it\u2019s good that people can choose from a wider spectrum of places \u2014 and I do \u2014 A\/C is one of the main reasons why that\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n

Air conditioning as it exists today is far from perfect. But it\u2019s also necessary, especially in an ever-warming world. What we need is not less air conditioning \u2014 unless you happen to work at an office where they keep the temperature at 60\u00b0F<\/a> \u2014 but better air conditioning, with more efficient units powered by cleaner electricity. <\/p>\n

If you want to go without A\/C, go right ahead (though I probably won\u2019t be visiting your house in the summer anytime soon). But either way, it should be a choice. <\/p>\n

A version of this story originally appeared in the Good News newsletter. Sign up here!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A You\u2019re Hot, Stay Cool sign with an AC unit and fan posted to a street light during a heat wave on 86th Street in Manhattan, New York. | Lindsey Nicholson\/UCG\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Lee Kuan Yew, the iron-willed founder of modern Singapore, was once asked what the most important invention of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":739,"href":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions\/739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/audiomateria.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}